'Not that part!' exclaimed my good-natured tormentor. 'Well, then, you could play "The Good-for-nothing."'
Which was an allusion I did not at all understand. Miss West proceeded:
'All you've got to do, my dear, is to stick to nature. Turk gets mad with me when I tell him that. "Stick to nature!" he cries. "Why, then every fool could act." I say to him, every fool could act if he stuck to nature. Then he rolls his eyes and glares, does Turk.'
'Why does he do that?' I inquire.
'He plays the heavy villains, my dear, at the Royal Columbia Theatre; and what's a heavy villain without his glare? You should see him in The Will and the Way! It's a sight.'
'I should like to see him; but you haven't told me who Turk is.'
'Turk is my brother.'
'He is not here?' I ask, with another glance at the curtain.
'Oh, no; he is playing a new part to-night Poor Turk! the new school of acting depresses him. Say, O.'
'O,' I said, with a smile.